Referee of the Year - Rasta
It has been a golden year for the 30-year-old from Cape Town via Johannesburg, one of the most recognisable referees in the rugby world with his speed, engaging personality,accuracy and good communication skills.
The highlights of his year were his first Super Rugby match in April, his first test in July, the first ever final of Sevens Rugby at the Olympic Games and then, acknowledging all of this, the Referee of the Year Award.
Rasivhenge describes his feeling on receiving the SARU award as "stoked". He describes 2016 as the year when everything turned to gold, a miracle of a year. He has come a long way from playing scrumhalf at Jeppe and Wits to where his now and he is only just 30.
Like Craig Joubert, Rasivhenge has made his name on the Sevens circuit. Where international Sevens are played you will find Rasivhenge, from Cape Town to Vancouver, on the men's circuit and on the women's circuit, at the Commonwealth Games and then in August at the Olympic Games, one for five South Africans officiating in the first-ever men's and women's Olympic Games tournaments. The others were Craig Joubert, Marius van der Westhuizen, Ben Crouse and Aimee Barrett. Rasivhenge was the only one to referee at both men's and women's tournaments. Then came the history-making moment of refereeing glory when he was appointed to and refereed the Final of the 2016 Olympic Games Sevens, Great Britain vs Fiji, which Fiji won.
In all Rasivhenge has refereed 204 Sevens matches, including 18 finals since he first refereed Sevens in 2007, when he was 21. He has refereed finals in Hong Kong, Dubai, Port Elizabeth, London, Russia when it hosted the Sevens World Cup in Moscow, Gold Coast (Australia), Guangzhou (China) when New Zealand's Women beat Australia 26-12, Atlanta, Hong Kong again when Fiji again beat New Zealand, Glasgow, Sydney, Las Vegas and now Rio de Janiero.
In the 15-man game he had great achievements as well. In 2015 he became the youngest-ever referee to referee a Currie Cup Final. This year he refereed in Super Rugby and semifinals of the Currie Cup and the Gold Cup, apart from South Africa A vs England's Saxons and the Test – Uganda vs Namibia in Kampala. It will not be his last Test, unless something extraordinary happens.
Rasivhenge was born in Kempton Park, his home languages English and Venda, but last year he moved to Cape Town, living in Durbanville and is part of a golden year for the Western Province Referees' Society. By the end of the year four of their referees will have refereed their first Tests – Rasivhenge, Marius van der Westhuizen, Cwengile Jadezweni and Aimee Barrett who is down to referee her first Test in December.
Understandably his family are proud of him, as are South African rugby and its referees.
